wXw Dead End XVII Review

With 16 Carat drawing ever closer, things are heating up in wXw. Dead End promised to shape the landscape of the company heading into the big tourney as all the belts were on the line. Will we see a host of new champions or will the status quo be maintained? Let’s dish out some stars.

They say that styles make matches and this was a fantastic example of how two very different styles can come together to create something great.

Heading into the show Jay Skillet was trying to get into the head of RINGKAMPF. He was suggesting that WALTER’s mind was more on his World Title shot than the tag belts and that they challenged Jay FK because they thought it was an easy option.

And there were moments in the early goings when it looked like the mind games might have worked. Skillet and Kaspin were able to use their speed to get at WALTER and Thatcher. To dance around them and combine to hit some cool tag-team moves.

Unfortunately for them, WALTER and Thatcher are like two hungry bears, and when they get their hands on you, they will feast. They were able to slow Skillet and Kaspin down and go to work with that brutal combination of chops and suplexes. In the end, that brute strength would soften Jay FK up for WALTER and Thatcher both locking on chokes and getting the win.

Post-match it looked like the teams were going to make up when Skillet took his life into his hands by slapping WALTER. WALTER responded by hitting him right back and then they shook hands. I think that’s WALTER talk for well-played, let’s be friends.

Verdict: Three And Three Quarter Stars

Jurn Simmons defeated Mike Schwarz

Jurn Simmons has been bullying some of the smaller members of the roster. Mike Schwarz is not a small man and is coming in to teach him a lesson.

Do you like big men hitting each other with things? Well, step on down because this one is for you – although you might be disappointed. The hardcore elements were nothing special. Chairs and tables mainly, although there was what looked like a beer barrel on a stick which I have to admit was new. Unfortunately, nothing they did in the ring was, and it dragged a bit.

There was also the problem that Schwarz was blown-up by the end. In turn, that led to him getting a bit sloppy before Simmons put him away with a kendo stick assisted Tentacles of Terror.

A fine match for what it was, but nothing you need to see.

Verdict: Two And A Half Stars

Lucky Kid defeated Ivan Kiev to qualify for 16 Carat Gold

We’ve got ourselves a bit of RISE vs RISE and perhaps the continuation of their explosion.

Or perhaps not. Because in the ring Kiev and Lucky Kid went out there and had a straight-up match. A pretty good one too. Right from the start these two worked at pace and told the story of them being even competitors. One of them would avoid a dive, and then the other would do the same shortly afterwards. It was all nicely done and provided an entertaining showing.

However, there was another story running concurrently to the action. On the outside of the ring, we had Tarkan Aslan and Pete Bouncer in the corners of Kid and Kiev respectively. At several points, it looked like one of these two was about to step in and get involved. Thankfully – at least for the in-ring quality – they resisted the temptation. It was enough to remind everyone that RISE isn’t exactly united, though.

Like all good four ways, this was slightly chaotic. It went under ten minutes and with that amount of time you might as well just throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. In this case, quite a lot of it did.

A big part of that was what I am choosing to describe as effective use of the Session Moth. She started by trying to convince Toni and Kelly to join her in a bit of grinding which set up Veda Scott for a roll-up. That settled Scott into her position as the chicken-shit heel, hiding on the outside and sneaking it to take advantage at various points.

Elsewhere, we got all of Martina’s crowd-pleasing spots while Storm and Kelly came across as the two legit wrestlers in the match. As mentioned, they didn’t get much time, and with that in mind, they did a solid job of playing to everyone’s strengths.

Toni Storm eventually hit a Strong Zero on Martina for the three. Afterwards, Martina popped up after a sip of beer to celebrate with her friend. That’s losing in style.

Verdict: Three Stars

Bobby Gunns defeated Absolute Andy to retain the wXw Shotgun Title

I find it fascinating that Bobby Gunns’ gimmick is that he smokes. There are very few places where you could get away with that.

A story of two halves. The first half was a great wrestling contest which looked to be telling the story of Gunns attempt to prove himself. The two men had a submission based battle with Andy’s strength giving him an edge, but Bobby showing a hell of a lot of heart. He wanted to prove he could stand with Absolute Andy and worked his ass off to do it.

Sadly, the second half started with a ref bump. From there on out, we pulled into shenanigans central. Firstly, we had Bobby Gunns’ brother (Vinny Vortex is his name on Cagematch) getting involved despite being on crutches. Andy dealt with him pretty quickly, locking him in a sharpshooter. It worked to briefly fire up Bobby, although not for long, and Andy regained control (the ref still hadn’t stirred at this point).

Then, we had a little video package. And when I say little, I mean tiny. Marius Al-Ani (who I believe is Andy’s former partner) appeared on the screen to announce, ‘hi Andy’. That was it. While I don’t know how their relationship ended, I have to assume it was pretty tragic because that was enough to distract him and allow Gunns to pick up the win.

The first half of this felt like it was building to something special. Then the booking got in the way. It was still good, and it’s worth noting that I am new to wXw, so it’s possible that those invested in the stories will have enjoyed the antics more than me. However, I felt it took away from what could have been a fantastic match.

I love me a bit of Speedball Mike Bailey. I’m not the only one either; this crowd were hot for him.

In a nice twist, they managed to tell the story they failed to in the last match. At the start, Da Mack came to the ring with Klinger, but after he got involved once, Bad Bones sent him to the back. He wanted to do this alone.

And he had an excellent dance partner to do it with. Bailey brings so much to his matches. He can work at a ridiculous pace, and yet those strikes are near perfect. Some of the kicks he threw were almost beautiful in how violently on point they were.

I knew Bailey was outstanding, though. So the person I was most impressed by was Bad Bones. He kept up with Bailey every step of the way, and that can’t be easy. It wasn’t just a case of following along either. That guy can go. I’m sure it’s not a surprise to people who have watched wXw for a while, however, as a newbie, I loved watching him deck it out with Bailey. The closing stretch was near perfect as the momentum veered from man to man. When Speedball missed the Shooting Star Knee Drop (which can’t be good for his poor knees), Bad Bones was able to take advantage and get the win.

And that win was the most important thing. He’d proven he could do it without any help. After the match, RISE came to the ring to celebrate with Klinger, suggesting that he’d done enough to keep them onside. Or perhaps not. Bouncer didn’t seem quite as convinced as the rest of them. Particularly not when John decided to shove the belt in his face. It looks like this storyline is far from over.

Verdict: Four Stars

Overall Show

My second wXw show was even better than the first. The opening tag and the main event were the best from an in-ring standpoint with Kiev and Lucky Kid also having a good showing. The only real disappointment was Gunns and Andy developing into antics. Everything else gave you what you’d expect from it.